Mixed Species Pastures

Productive pastures are a key driver for livestock and mixed farm business profitability; hence it is critical producers are utilising productive pasture species best suited to their environment. As such, BIGG has had an ongoing focus on productive pastures, including evaluating the productivity of pasture mixes. This has demonstrated the value of multi-species being better able to respond to seasonal climate variation compared to monocultures, whilst also providing higher quality feed.

Projects

BIGG has delivered a range of projects focussing on the productivity and communications of annual based multi-species pastures. These have been supported by:

• 2021 - Northern and Yorke Landscape Board (Goyder’s Line project)
• 2022 - SA Drought Hub (Mixed Species I Pasture Demo project – in association with MNHRZ)
• 2022 - The Adelaide of University (Pasture Optimisation for Drought Solutions project)
• 2023 - SA Drought Hub (Mixed Species II Pasture Demo project – in association with MNHRZ)
• 2024 - SA Drought Hub (ROI of Drought Resilient Measures project)

In 2024, BIGG received funding from the Federal Governments Future Drought Fund (through the Long-term Trials of Drought Resilient Farming Practices Grants) to assess the the productivity of perennial based multi-species pasture treatments in local farming systems.

Under this project, a large-scale trial was sown at Marananga in July 2024, with the treatments ranging from a simple ‘two species’ mix (comprising lucerne and phalaris) to a highly diverse ’12 species’ mix (comprising various legumes, grasses, herbs and a brassica). Over the next few years, the trial will be assessed for dry matter production, species composition, pasture quality and groundcover.